What are you playing this weekend?

I'm wrapping up Troubleshooters: Abandoned Children, as I try to do the last bonus mission, and clean up a few easy achievements. I also want to try to play Imposter Factory before the calendar turns over, for my GOTY list.

Way more Farming Simulator 22 than I’d expected over the long weekend. Started and completed both Lake and The Artful Escape. Also enjoying Halo Infinite campaign in short stints.

Somehow found myself loading up Guild Wars 2 again and buying another character slot.

And seeing if I can get my wife interested in some It Takes Two, though she is not a fan of platformers.

And since someone mentioned it earlier, I’m reminded that I need to get cracking on hauling some gifts in American Truck Sim.

WH40K Battlesector is amazeballs!
It is my game of the year along with Pathfinder WotR.

fangblackbone wrote:

WH40K Battlesector is amazeballs!
It is my game of the year along with Pathfinder WotR.

Game of the year material? That's very high praise!
Wasn't sure what to make of it at first. I mean, I love me some W40K but I had already played Gladius last year and wasn't sure if I needed another turn-based strategy based in this universe. Turns out I do!

Maclintok wrote:
fangblackbone wrote:

WH40K Battlesector is amazeballs!
It is my game of the year along with Pathfinder WotR.

Game of the year material? That's very high praise!
Wasn't sure what to make of it at first. I mean, I love me some W40K but I had already played Gladius last year and wasn't sure if I needed another turn-based strategy based in this universe. Turns out I do!

Battlesector is tactical while Gladius is strategic. Battlesector is made by the same folks who made Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock, which is also excellent.

...I'm sorry, there's a good Battlestar game?! What?

How did I never hear of this?

Just reinstalled and restarted The Witcher and Vampire the Masquerade for the umpteenth time.

Throw in a little Shadow Empire into the mix. Still trying to figure that game out.

Vrikk wrote:

...I'm sorry, there's a good Battlestar game?! What?

How did I never hear of this?

Two, actually. Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5...

And the Warthog game from 2003:

https://www.mobygames.com/game/battl...

Some might say Battlestar Galactica Online was good, but they're wrong.

That was probably the fastest I have ever bought a game on Steam on pure whim.

Deadlock? Good choice.

Guardians of the Galaxy...finally.

Back in October dropped my computer moving into a new place busting it completely. That computer was from 2012 and pretty much been only upgrading the GPU to keep it relevant. But in the last year it started to really show its age. So immediately ordered a new computer with a bunch of fix'ns. But it arrived broken. Shipped it back and took them awhile to repair it - ended up just being a bad GPU which took a while to get a replacement (3070 ti - which I know ends up only being a minor upgrade to the 3070 but I didn't want to wait the 2 extra weeks for the 3080 so got the best they had. If I had known it would have taken almost three months to have a working computer, I would have gotten the 3080). So they send the computer back and the shipping gets caught up in the holiday rush delaying it by 6 days.

So painful seeing the fedEx "delayed - no scheduled delivery date at this time" message day after day and thinking they lost the thing.

But finally got it today. It's worth it as I'm able to play a bunch of games with the highest settings in 1440p over 60 fps. Guardians of the Galaxy is so far pretty amazing looking and fun to boot. The crew banter reminds me of Dragon Age Inquisition.

Robear wrote:

Deadlock? Good choice.

Yes. I feel like just earlier this year I looked for good Battlestar games, and for some reason nothing came up. This was also around the time that I was looking into Total War conversion mods, so maybe I had search terms in there that was looking for modifications to some of the Creative Assembly games.

Changed the game I'm playing this week/weekend to Sword and Fairy 7.

Wanted a game that shows off the new video card RTX features and heard about this one and wow is this game gorgeous. It's a JRPG but from a Chinese developer. It plays a lot like other action JRPG's but the setting and culture make it pretty unique.

This is the first of this series that has been translated into English. I had zero clue of what was going on at the start of the game story wise. But after a few hours in now I've got a hold of it. The translation is not the best and there's quite a few times when they do a literal translation that comes out wrong in English. But you will still get the general idea of what is being said.

This game is full on Chinese fantasy martial arts at its most beautiful. The characters look fantastic, the fighting animations look amazing, the cut sequences (which there are a lot of) are sometimes jaw dropping in the fight choreography mixed in with special effects. On top of all this the music is fantastic. I wish they had the soundtrack on a streaming service.

I hadn't played a JRPG for a while and didn't realize I was missing the experience until I started this one.

There is a demo but it's not translated. So other than putzing around in it and seeing how the game runs on your computer you probably won't get much out of it unless you know Cantonese.

Heck I started Tomb Raider 2013. Still looks damn good at ultimate 1080p and running smooth.

Might try the whole trilogy finally if I keep having fun with this one.

Doing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided with the CRPG club. I thought I would be all sneaky, but I've already gone loud in two proper firefights, so any dreams of a pacifist run are over before they started.

Guardians of the Galaxy for me.

A lot of my gaming podcasts has said it is a much better game than they were expecting, and much better than it has any right to be.

This weekend, I will be continuing my replay of Xenogears. I'm currently in the sewers (which is where I stopped the last time I tried to replay this game).

I will also spend some time with The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd. That game is very different from the other ones in the series and, so far, I can't say I like it as much. It's not what I want out of a Trails game. I will probably get to the end at some point in January, but so far this one ranks at the bottom of the list for the series.

I also plan to play some Monster Hunter World, in my futile attempt at getting both trophies for getting all the gold crowns (I think I have five of six remaining, not counting the Iceborne monsters). It's a huge waste of time, but it's also a fun thing to do while listening to podcasts.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun: Aiko's Choice. This is comfort food for me at this point. Same crew, same abilities, some new, surprisingly tough murder sudokus to solve.

Lately I've been hitting a nice mix of some Lord of the Rings Online along with seasonal play of Warhammer Inquisitor and Diablo III on the Switch, so it'll likely continue to be so. I did pick up Cyberpunk 2077 so I might dabble with that as well.

We are doing some Mario Party Super Stars
Bravely Default II
Ys Origin
ffxiv

Stele wrote:

Heck I started Tomb Raider 2013. Still looks damn good at ultimate 1080p and running smooth.

Might try the whole trilogy finally if I keep having fun with this one.

MY WIFE gave me for Xmas a few eyars ago... in eed to finish it

Trails in the Sky SC and Trails in cold Steel 3. What is going on with me?

I've been going through the PS Plus back catalogue. Bounced off Days Gone and Mortal Shell, but I had more luck with Maquette. In fact I finished it in a couple of sittings. It's very short, but a pleasant enough diversion while it lasts.

Ghost of Tsushima

I really wasn’t expecting to adore this game quite as much as I do. I’ve burnt out on the Ubisoft open world formula, finding that their games still have settings and stories that appeal strongly to me but that the actual games move further and further away from what I enjoyed about earlier entries in the respective series (clearly, they sell a crap ton, so the games must be to a lot of people’s tastes.)

It’s understandable then that I was heading into Ghost of Tsushima with some slight reservations. The game opens on a fixed camera angle showing banners blowing in the wind whilst you select your general settings, lighting, language, etc. It then goes into a cinematic scene that precisely captures the atmosphere of the best samurai movies. It was a straightforward but effective start. I picked Japanese dialogue with subtitles which probably helped greatly. I’ve since switched to English voice acting (which is also excellent so far) as I realised I was occasionally missing subtitles whilst my eyes were off doing other stuff.

It’s still early days yet and the underlying formula for side quests, collectibles, etc has yet to fully exert itself, but I do have a high tolerance for those things if I’m otherwise invested in a game. I’m constantly being taken aback by the beauty of the scenery, both in broad view and in small moments whilst riding through bamboo forests or visiting a secluded temple. I adore the combat, which feels authentic to fighting with a katana and therefore fresh and interesting, as well as being finely tuned to the point where you have to concentrate on what’s happening. It’s not Dark Souls difficult (at least so far) but fights can easily go south if you prioritise the wrong enemy of fluff a few attacks.

There are also a lot of smart decisions in the game, not the least of which is moving the ‘interact with object or person’ input to the right trigger. It feels surprisingly intuitive to use that trigger, which is the ‘take action’ input in most games already, to be opening doors and picking up objects. Often new, untypical or downright bizarre controller layouts are an irritant for me (I’ve been put off playing games thanks to mind-boggling control mapping) and that the motivation behind new arrangements can feel like the developer being different for the sake of being different rather than any instinct to make things easier for the player but this change feels much more natural than using a face button. I think it’s a keeper.

It’s so nice to start the year playing a game that fills me with genuine enthusiasm and joy and to be excited for what’s in store as I progress onwards.

For those inspired by the Tomb Raider talk, just thought I'd mention the trilogy is free on Epic until Jan. 6.

I discovered Super Robot Wars 30 this week and I can't remember any other game making me smile this much in the last year. I think I'll be importing over some of the previously released Switch games.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/8...

On the tabletop I'll be playing more Marvel Champions with my son.

I kind of forgot it was a weekend until now. I was fortunate enough to be gifted both New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe and Super Mario 3D World + Bowsers Fury for Christmas. I love them both so much. I haven't put much time into 3D World, but I'm loving the structure of Bowsers Fury. Was not expecting the cat worship though - even the goombas are fuzzy and have cat ears.

I'm connecting most with NSMB U though. It's everything I love about 2D Mario.

I started Horizon Zero Dawn. Not very far in yet at all, but hunting robot dinosaurs is already just as much fun as I'd dreamed it would be.

Continuing playing division 2 and retro bowl from time to time.

Alison8 wrote:

Continuing playing division 2 and retro bowl from time to time.

Didn't know it was on the web. Got it on Android and love it. Think I threw them a dollar for full version or whatever.